Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Last Minute Wedding DIY's

In the last week leading up to our wedding, I practically lived at Michael's. There always seemed to be some last minute need for the tables, the favors, the ceremony, etc, etc. I had been working full time until this point so a lot of the reception details and decorations needed attention. I'm so grateful to the girlfriends who helped me out big time with this hefty task!

Being someone who loves the details, it was hard for me to give up the idea that I wasn't going to have the ideal "Pinterest" wedding. I had to learn to choose what I really had time and energy to work on, to ask for help with what I couldn't do alone, and to just let everything else go.

That being said, here are a few of the DIY details I DID make time for:

1. Table Numbers - or Table Cities in our case. While Geoff and I were determining the seating chart, he informed me that he didn't want table numbers. He didn't like the idea of "ranking" friends and family. We decided to do table cities instead. The cities we chose all had a special meaning or history to us.

I had wanted to use postcards, but we did not have time to order them. So, I made my own "table cities" using scrapbook paper. It was a bit tedious to do for 20 or so tables, but I think it was worth it:

2. A last minute "crisis" we ran into was the moment we found out that our catering included the "plastic ware and paper plates package." Ahhh! I couldn't believe that after all the money we were spending that now we were going to be eating with plastic knives and forks?! After I calmed down, I tried to find a solution that I could feel better about. I found little brown bags, cute navy and white striped paper napkins, and an adorable stamp at (you guessed it) Michael's. My friends and I quickly worked on wrapping it all up into an adorable cutlery package. Crisis averted.

3. For the escort cards, we wanted to tie in Geoff's work as a contractor and my love of art. We decided on paint swatches and paint cans. The paint swatches also doubled as bookmarks. Geoff found the paint cans at The Home Depot, I bought the alphabet stickers at Michael's, Sherwin Williams gave us the stack of paint swatches, and Geoff built the stand.

Photo Credit: Keri Harrison Photography

4. My friend Isabel made these amazing bottles for Communion:

Photo Credit: Keri Harrison Photography

5. The remaining crafting included signs to direct traffic to our site:

In the end, the details didn't really matter. We lucked out with such a beautiful site, a beautiful day and the casual feel of everything (including the plastic knives and forks) made everyone relaxed and ready to party. I couldn't have asked for a better wedding or reception. I wish I could re-live it again!